Plymouth Argyle chairman James Brent remains confident development work on Home Park’s Grandstand and a new ice arena will start in early 2018 with a council decision looming.

After a long period of planning and creating the hundreds of documents associated with the hybrid application, the wait for a decision on planning permission is nearly over.

The application comprises two parts. In the first, the plan is to refurbish and extend the Grandstand as well as erect a new ice arena where the club’s current offices stand.

In the second part, Plymouth Argyle Football Club Limited and HHP Nominee Limited are seeking outline permission for a mixed-use development including food and beverage units, offices, gymnasium, hotel and veterinary surgery.

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A drawing of how New Mayflower Grandstand would look after the completion of stage one (Image: ADG/Kensington Taylor)

Brent is hoping the matter will be heard at Plymouth City Council’s next planning committee meeting on December 14, when he hopes they get the green light.

“We’re very much hoping for December 14. Certainly, the outstanding bits the council have asked for should be with them well in advance of their deadline for writing their reports,” he told Herald Sport.

“So, very positive towards that and what we’ve been doing is running a process for the last few months alongside the planning process where we are working with contractors and they’re working with their sub-contractors to actually start on work fairly early on.

“The normal approach is you get the planning permission, you take a breather, you celebrate the fact you’ve got your planning permission and then you start work on the contracting phase, whereas we’ve been running the two together.

“The big date for us in terms of having everything up and running, tried and tested, is clearly we are keen the Mayflower Grandstand and Mayflower Ice Arena are open for Mayflower, so 2020 is a deadline for that.

“We’re actually planning to be up and running in the early to middle part of 2019, so we can move forward with that and it will be great if we could have some constants in 2019 just to celebrate the opening, then we’ve clearly got a wonderful year of events with Mayflower 400.”

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Brent cannot read the minds of those councillors who will discuss the application and make a decision on its future, but he is confident.

The Argyle chief feels there is nothing in the application which has not already been raised within the Central Park Area Action Plan, a planning policy document, which was adopted by the council in 2008.

“From a technical standpoint, you break down to component parts and you say ‘Is the type of development you’re considering consistent with what was identified for the area?’” he said.

“Clearly the Grandstand has always been a centre of planning focus for this area.

“The ice arena’s been contemplated for this area for many years, the hotel, the offices, the Area Action Plan contemplated 50,000sqft of offices, we’re building somewhat less than that.

“All the different uses are consistent with [the Area Action Plan], if we were looking at residential, for example, that’s a no-no, student accommodation, but we’re not doing anything which is contrary to the Area Action Plan or Plymouth plan.

“Then you look at the technical things like parking and traffic and so on, and we’re confident.

“We’ve clearly had a green light from Highways England, we’ve had a green light from the traffic side and we’re finishing work on the parking.

The proposed public route between Mayflower Ice Arena and the Green Taverners looking west (Image: ADG/Kensington Taylor)

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“We think we’ve ticked all the technical boxes, if you like, or in the process of ticking those and then, clearly, there is a judgement for the members to make in committee as to whether the application’s good.

“I’m biased. We’re promoting it, but these are two fabulous community assets in terms of the new Grandstand and the ice arena and, yes, the hotel’s a commercial asset, but again that’s a really important part of the 2020 jigsaw.

“I’m hoping the members will see the merits in the scheme and be very supportive.”

An agenda for the planning committee meeting will be published on the council’s website in the week before December 14.

If Argyle fans wish to question James Brent, they may attend a fans’ forum, which will take place at 10.30am on Saturday, December 9 in the Green Taverners’ Marquee.